


Kingship

by en passant (corinthian)



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-28
Updated: 2014-10-28
Packaged: 2018-02-23 01:32:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2529092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/corinthian/pseuds/en%20passant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seventeen moments that make up part of a lifetime. Some scandalshipping, prideshipping and rivalshipping if you're looking at it in the right way. Mentions of child abuse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kingship

1.

For all that Gozaburo preached a solid mind and strong hand at business the man was a fool. The people be employed were fools, mindless little bottom feeders that clung to Gozaburo in hopes of hand outs. If Gozaburo had any wit about him he would have realized long ago that the son always kills the father. That was how the kingship worked, the prince became king.

2.

Akhenaden would never be Pharaoh. It was something he understood, something he accepted, something that sunk to the bottom of his soul and festered like an unclean wound until his vision was filled with jagged black lines. He could cede to his brother. His dearest older brother. The brother that could do no wrong, had a kind heart and a steady hand. (And, if Akhenaden killed his brother, it was only in dreams and only in desperation and when he woke he would not remember what he had done.)

3.

He didn’t have any interest in ruling others. They had called him a conqueror, printed it across the newspapers and invented headlines — Pillager Of Toys, The Kaiba Entertainment Conquest, Brutal Takeover Of Gaming Industry. He simply didn’t have time for other people.

People thought he sought the title _King of Games_ because of what it meant to _them_. A position above everyone else, a lord of the duel, the kind that would demand fealty from the mediocre peasants below.

He just didn’t have time for them.

4\. 

“My Pharaoh.” Seth committed a crime. He laid a hand to his Pharaoh’s shoulder, drew him against the wall outside of his chambers and pressed him to the stone. He committed another crime, moving closer, making it intimate. His voice lowered, and as a third crime he demanded attention.

Atem’s fingers trailed up the curve of Seth’s neck, his thumb brushed over his earlobe, fingertips sliding under his headdress to gently sift through his hair. Then he stepped away, under the circle of Seth’s arms and didn’t look back as he walked down the hallway.

5.

There are things worse than death. Gozaburo was a family man. He was a man of power. He understood what caring did to people and he understood humiliation. That was why he had Mokuba watch when he had a butler rip out one of Seto’s teeth for punishment.

“It’s not uncommon, in a cutthroat industry like ours, _my boy_ for torture to be used against us.” Us, ours, my. Kaiba Corporation. Nothing was lost on Seto, certainly not the way Mokuba sobbed when he screamed, or the way his blood looked on Mokuba’s hands when his little brother had tried to help with the ache in his jaw, or the way he felt knowing that Gozaburo had played them both.

6.

Death was exciting. 

7.

He mentored his son without telling him. Akhenaden didn’t want heritage to get in the way of the lessons he taught Seth. (Or, perhaps, he didn’t want to feel guilty. Or, perhaps, he didn’t want to break the reverent way that Seth had spoken of his father — fallen in battle, an honorable man, I will carry his pride with me — not with the blood of Kul Elna on his hands.)

Seth was obedient but rebellious. He disliked being ordered but enjoyed doing things correctly. He was fiercely loyal. He took to magic and power like he had been born to it — and Akhenaden remembered that he had been.

If only his son would be Pharaoh.

8.

Seto hadn’t said goodbye. In some way of finality he knew that his battle with the other Yuugi had finished at Alcatraz. He had buried everything in the ocean and everything else that followed had merely been aftershocks. Death shudders. In that way, animals were smarter than most humans, they could at least feel the cage closing in.

9.

(He didn’t take the jet to America.

He watched Alcatraz sink into the ocean in the almost empty belly of the blimp. Behind him the other Yuugi stood, facing the opposite direction.

I’m holding my hand out to you, Kaiba, whenever you want to walk forward with me.)

Dreams have never been kind to Seto.

10.

There was no way he could win. He was fourteen and he was going to lose everything.

11.

_Of course_ , he’d figured it out. The missing part in his plans. He couldn’t _make_ an amusement park with _games_ if there weren’t any stakes. That’s how games worked. Games needed weight, value. They weren’t _worth_ anything if there wasn’t a prize. Prizes weren’t enough sometimes, though. It was like betting. Didn’t the thrill come from being able to lose too? And of course, the threat of losing, the threat of losing was the same as the threat of dying? Of course, that was exactly it. He’d been missing the key point all together. How could he have thought that he could make a place full of games without that? He was a fool. Seto had been a fool. He could fix it. He’d fix it and he’d challenge Yuugi, of course he would. That was the whole point, wasn’t it? Games — why had he thought he could make a park with games without an opponent? He had been such a fool. No matter. He knew what he needed now. He was going to fix it. Everything was falling into place. He felt so alive.

12.

He had prepared himself to hate his new little brother. Seto didn’t want his family to change. He liked being an only child, not that he had anything to compare it to. His father had gotten very quiet, tried to explain it and only ended up saying “Things will be different.” That didn’t sound great to Seto.

But then something had happened. The new baby came home, but his mother didn’t. Then his father left again. Seto wasn’t usually allowed to be home alone, but his aunt who was coming was late. His father couldn’t wait and had left again.

His new little brother cried forever and nothing Seto had done had made him be quiet.

“I’m sorry, I’ll take care of you. I didn’t really not want you.” He tried, desperately.

13.

“So, Mokuba is in America?” Yuugi asked. He wasn’t as hesitant as he had been, years ago. His posture would never been the same aggressively confident stance that his other self had, but there was no fear between his shoulders. “I’m surprised you came back to Domino.”

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. Time hadn’t changed _his_ sharpness, but just as he was aware that he looked unfriendly, Yuugi was aware that it was nothing personal. “Children do grow up. Some, I imagine, who still live with their family wouldn’t understand.” It was an insult, but it made Yuugi laugh.

“If I concede, do you think we could have a normal conversation? Every time we meet you try to make it a fight. But it won’t work, you can’t draw him out.” Yuugi’s voice softened, a little.

“And what do you want us to talk about? I already know what you’ve been up to. _Retirement_.” He said it like a dirty word. 

Yuugi folded his hands together. “Only from official tournaments, I much prefer to play for fun these days. How about you, Kaiba-kun?”

“I’m not having this ridiculous conversation with you.” Kaiba grumbled, but he didn’t leave. They continued talking into the afternoon and then the evening.

14.

Akhenaden gave his son kingship, paid for in blood. Atem reinforced the gift, and Seth couldn’t refuse.

15.

(He didn’t take the jet to America.

He watched Alcatraz sink into the ocean, the only sign of tension was how his fingers curled in the other Yuugi’s hair. He wasn’t ready to watch his battle disappear, to again be deprived of a target. He wasn’t ready to admit that this Yuugi, that claimed to seek his memories, wasn’t a phantom of the past trying to cling to it, but was someone who was trying to live with it.

Seto Kaiba’s stomach turned unpleasantly. Yuugi leaned into his touch.

“Let’s go.”)

16.

“Your future is mine.” Gozaburo dug his fat fingers under the collar around Seto’s neck and yanked up on it, pulling him to his feet to emphasize the point. “Everything you are is because I either _gave_ it to you or allowed you to take it. Without me you’re nothing but a brat who thinks he has power. I’ll give you true power, but everything has a _price_ , boy.”

17.

Seto had purposefully set aside his ‘battle gear’ as Mokuba called it — the trench coat and duel disk, that had already been gathering dust anyway. He hadn’t even worn a suit, even though he’d traveled from the office, to the park that he knew Yuugi frequented.

“It’s good to see you.” Yuugi smiled, almost as infuriatingly as his other self’s smirk had been, and without asking placed his deck on the table between them.


End file.
